Effective catch and release fishing techniques avoid excessive fish fighting and handling times, avoid damage to fish skin, scale and slime layers (that leave fish vulnerable to fungal skin infections) by nets, dry hands and dry surfaces, and avoid damage to throat ligaments and gills by poor handling techniques.The use of barbless hooks is an important aspect of catch and release; barbless hooks reduce injury and handling time, increasing survival. Frequently, fish caught on barbless hooks can be released without being removed from the water, and the hook(s) effortly slipped out with a single flick of the pliers or leader. Barbless hooks can be purchased from several major manufacturers or can be created from a standard hook by crushing the barb(s) flat with needle-nosed pliers. Some anglers avoid barbless hooks because of the erroneous belief that too many fish will escape. Concentrating on keeping the line tight at all times while fighting fish, equipping lures that do not have them with split rings, and using recurved point or "Triple Grip" style hooks on lures, will keep catch rates with barbless hooks as high as those achieved with barbed hooks. Triple Grip treble hooks work particularly well with the barbs crushed.To make a hook barbless, the barb is simply crushed flat with a pair of needle-nosed pliers; a 2-second task. Medium grit sandpaper can be further used to ensure complete removal of the barb, but this is not necessary and is rarely done.Key aspects of catch and release include:• Using strong tackle, to minimise fighting times • Using needle-nosed pliers to aid unhooking • Using barbless hooks, for quick, easy hook removal and reduced handling times • Leaving fish in the water during the unhooking and release process, to avoid any handling If fish are removed from the water for unhooking and/or a photo, key aspects of handling include:• Avoiding the use of landing nets; if landing nets must be used, specially designed catch-and-release landing nets (e.g. Environets) are used • Avoiding touching the fish with dry hands or dry surfaces (e.g. shirt fronts) or putting them down on dry surfaces (e.g. rocks, boat gunwhales, boat bottoms) • Only touching the fish with wet hands and wet surfaces (e.g. wet towel) • Avoiding hanging fish from their jaw/mouth/gills • Holding fish horizontally, and supporting large fish with a second hand under the belly • Minimising time out of the water (e.g. 20–30 seconds) The effects of catch and release vary from species to species. A number of scientific studies have shown extremely high survival rates (97%+) for released fish if handled correctly and particularly if caught on artificial baits such as lures. Fish caught on lures are usually hooked cleanly in the mouth, minimising injury and aiding release. Other studies have shown somewhat lower but encouragingly high survival rates for fish gut-hooked on bait if the line is cut and the fish is released without trying to remove the hook. This procedure should be followed for any gut-hooked fish intended or required to be released.Unquote

1) With the hook in the gullet, note which side of the fish's mouth the hook shank is toward. Note: For illustration sake, the line is eliminated here in steps 2 through 5. In reality, the line stays connected as this technique is performed.

2) With a finger or two, reach in through the last gill arch on that side of the fish and push and pull down on the hookeye so the hook turns and . . .

(3) rolls out below the gill toward the side of the fish. At that point, amazingly, the hook, barb and all, almost always pops free from its hold in the fish's gullet.

(4) Reach into the fish's mouth and grip the bend in the hook (which is now up) and . . .

(5) lift it free. If the fish's mouth is too small to reach in with your hand, use a needle-nose pliers to grip the hook bend.

What needs to be emphasized is how resilient a fish's gills actually are -- far from being the fragile organs often suggest by some sources. And the occasional bleeding fish? Does it have to be kept? Just get the fish back into the water as soon as possible and, more often than not, the bleeding stops.